BUTTONHOLES

[Traité des oeillets] Nouveau traité des oeillets. A Paris, chez Charles de Sercy 1698.

An interesting practical treatise on growing carnations (lit. ‘eyeholes’ - i.e. buttonholes), it includes (92-100) double-column lists of different recognised types of carnation, classified by colour. These are followed then (102-160) by individual notes on the different types. The work was first printed in 1676.

A common attribution of the work to one ‘Goube’ has been challenged (see OCLC 15275419); the work is at present anonymous.

Details

12mo. (15.6 cms. x 10.2 cms.), pp. [4] 162 [2]. Woodcut floral device to title-page, woodcut head-pieces and initials. Light browning, slight waterstaining to title-page, a very good copy, bound in contemporary polished calf, gilt to spine and sides, all edges yellow (binding rubbed and bumped, splitting to upper joint, slight loss to head of spine and loosening to tail, but still good). Lacking final endpaper. Inscription to front free endpaper verso: “Ex libris j. B.torum Decle” (botanical gardens of Declé?)

OCLC locates six copies of any early edition in US (New York Botanical Garden, George Washington University, Chicago Botanical Garden, Oak Spring Botanical Garden, Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library). In the UK there are early editions at Cambridge and the British Library.